University Unveils New Virtual Tour

The Catholic University of America unveils a new online virtual tour for visitors and prospective students. The interactive map and virtual tour offers visitors a three-dimensional aerial view of campus, 68 panoramic photos, text descriptions of every building on campus, bus routes and schedules, and information on handicap accessible entrances.

"CUA has a beautiful campus. This new virtual tour will allow prospective students, regardless of what state or country they live in, to explore everything our campus community has to offer,” says Christine Mica, dean of admissions.

In addition to exterior views of a residence hall, such as Opus Hall, a prospective student can also check out panoramic photos of the lobby, residence hall chapel, and even a student room. Similar 360-degree tours exist for Millennium North, McDonald House, and Flather and Gibbons halls.

“One look at this interactive map and people who have never been here will see that this is not your typical big-city campus,” says Bart Pollock, web content editor for the University. “The way the graphical illustration shows the classic beauty of our buildings in this park-like setting I suspect will change how a lot of people think of Catholic University.”

“This is just the first phase. In the future, we hope to integrate videos, expand the graphical rendering to include the Monroe Street Market area [a mixed use development project under construction directly across the street from the main campus], and add more information that will be interesting and useful for the CUA community,” Pollock says.

The new online tool was created by Campus Bird, a division of concept3D software studio and media services company. The software studio has provided similar tour services for companies such as Disney, Google, and the U.S. Department of Energy and about 25 other schools.